Backpacking Europe
by A-Karana
Summary: What if Luke had gone on the backpacking trip with Lorelai and not Rory? Read and find out!
1. Prologue

Ok, I have to say some things about this story first: This story was not written by only one author and there is a whole homepage build for it alone with pictures, a travel map, a guestbook and so on. Because this page is really small I decided to post this here as well.

At the page we are at chapter 8 this weekend and we are updating weekly, so if you want to read further immediately or see the pictures with Luke and Lorelai in Europe, then chaeck out the page, you find the link in my profile.

Thanks again to all the authors who participated and I hope you as readers give them some reviews, no matter if good or bad. Because this whole project was my idea I take the right to post this under my name, I hope that's ok.

Have fun with the story!

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**Prologue-**

Headmaster Charleston was standing on the stage looking at the huge crowd. He was proud to announce this years valedictorian.

"It's a distinct pleasure for me to introduce to you our valedictorian. This young lady was a second-year transfer from a modest school where she distinguished herself immeasurably. She is humble, hard working, competitive when need be, and unparalleled in her academic achievements. Ladies and Gentlemen, Rory Gilmore."

The crowd broke into applause as Rory entered the stage, ready for her speech. She seeked eye contact with those who came to the ceremony, especially for her. Sookie and Jackson, Luke, her grandparents and her mother. Then she began her speech.

"Headmaster Charleston, faculty members, fellow students, family and friends, welcome. We never thought this day would come. We prayed for its quick delivery, crossed days off our calendars, counted hours, minutes, and seconds, and now that it's here, I'm sorry it is because it means leaving friends who inspire me and teachers who have been my mentors - so many people who have shaped my life and my fellow students' lives impermeably and forever. I live in two worlds. One is a world of books. I've been a resident of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, fought alongside Napoleon, sailed a raft with Huck and Jim, committed absurdities with Ignatius J. Reilly, rode a sad train with Anna Karenina, and strolled down Swann's Way. It's a rewarding world, but my second one is by far superior. My second one is populated with characters slightly less eccentric but supremely real, made of flesh and bone, full of love, who are my ultimate inspiration for everything. Richard and Emily Gilmore are kind, decent, unfailingly generous people. They are my twin pillars without whom I could not stand. I am proud to be their grandchild. But my ultimate inspiration comes from my best friend, the dazzling woman from whom I received my name and my life's blood, Lorelai Gilmore."

Lorelai looked at her daughter, finding it hard to keep her tears at bay. Sookie's support helped a little.

"My mother never gave me any idea that I couldn't do whatever I wanted to do or be whomever I wanted to be. She filled our house with love and fun and books and music, unflagging in her efforts to give me role models from Jane Austen to Eudora Welty to Patti Smith. As she guided me through these incredible eighteen years, I don't know if she ever realized that the person I most wanted to be was her."

That's when Lorelai lost it and let her tears go. And looking at her friends, they had to do the same thing, Luke including. He was wiping his eyes as well, trying to hide that fact that he was crying and sniffing just like the rest of them.

A little later in the ceremony it was time to hand out all the diplomas. The students waited patiently for their turns, Rory included. Sookie pushed herself through the crowd, ready to take pictures while Rory received her diploma as headmaster Charleston was about to call her name.

"Lorelai Leigh Gilmore."

Rory walked on stage and received her diploma. She held it up, proud that she's finally able to hold it in her hands. She makes eye contact with Lorelai as the headmaster continues to call names of students who are to receive their diplomas after Rory. Rory didn't hear it though. All she could do was focus on her mother, who was making grimaces and stuck out her tongue at her.

Rory did the same as she was leaving the stage, not really paying attention to where she was walking, just giggling because of the silliness that was so her mother.

Before she knew it she fell off the stage with a loud thud. The headmaster stopped mid-sentence as Rory's scream of pain could be heard and Lorelai jumped up from her chair, pushing everybody out of her way, wanting to get to her daughter as soon as possible.

When she finally reached Rory, she found her lying on the floor, her leg twisted in a weird angle.

"Please, someone call an ambulance" She yelled, as she kneeled down next to her daughter

"Rory? Are you okay?" she asked her worried and took her daughters hands in her own. Rory shook her head as her eyes filled with tears.

"My leg, it hurts so bad", she sobbed and Lorelai stroked over her hair.

"How is she?"

The others were standing behind them now as well, trying to get a glimpse at Rory to see how she was doing. Luke flinched when he saw the weird angle in which Rory's leg lay on the ground and he took a step back to make room for Emily and Richard who had now also arrived in front of the stage. Lorelai shook her head as she wiped away some of Rory's tears with her thumb

"It looks as it might be broken honey. Please don't move. I'm sure the ambulance will be here soon." Then she turned around and yelled once again.

"Did somebody call an ambulance?"

"Yes, Miss Gilmore our secretary made the call already", headmaster Charleston informed her and started to send away the people who had formed a huge crowd around Rory.

While Lorelai tried to calm Rory and Richard tried to keep Emily from attacking Lorelai, Luke stood a bit away from the scene and inspected this closely. He somehow felt like he should push through the crowd and be at Lorelai's and Rory's side, but then he reminded himself that it was simply not his place. He was not Rory's father and he wasn't Lorelai's boyfriend, husband or anything comparable.

He thought back to the conversation he'd had with Nicole that morning after Lorelai's comment about cruises, then pushed the thought aside. All he could do was stand by and wait. That was his place.

-xxxxx-

The ambulance had taken Rory to the emergency room. Lorelai had been able to ride along and the others had followed by car. A doctor had examined her, and they had brought her up to x-ray to make some pictures of her leg. As Lorelai expected it was broken. The doctor had to reposition the bone before applying a cast. She was able to go home with a couple of crutches and some heavy pain medication

"Doctor, how long is this going to take?" Rory asked him, hopeful that it wasn't as bad as it had sounded at first. She was supposed to leave for Europe in two days!

"You're supposed to wear the cast for at least six weeks. During that time you are not allowed to put any weight on that leg. After those six weeks I expect you back here in the hospital so we can evaluate the situation." He informed her and her hope shattered.

Lorelai nodded. "We're supposed to go backpacking in Europe for the summer. We're leaving this weekend."

"I'm very sorry. Unless you are willing to push your daughter around Europe in a wheelchair, I'm afraid you have to cancel the trip. I wouldn't advise an eight hour flight with a cast either." The doctor said and Lorelai's face got a defeated look on it.

Everything had been planned out so nicely. They had planned the whole trip, every stop, every city and now they couldn't go. They flights and the first few hostels were already paid for. But the money was not what made Lorelai sad. Rory had been so excited about the trip, it had been their dream for years and now it was all gone within seconds.

"Okay." Lorelai sounded sad. This summer was going to be nothing like they expected it to be and even Sookie's fierce hug couldn't help her.

-xxxxxx-

"Mom?" Rory called her mother who was somewhere in the living-room or kitchen. Lorelai immediately hurried to her daughter.

"Yes Rory?" Lorelai sat down on the edge of her daughter's bed. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay. I'm will be as long as the pain medication is still working I guess," Rory gave her mother a little, sad smile and shrugged.

Lorelai smiled back slightly. "I'm sorry today turned out the way it did," she said and sighed, while petting Rory's arm.

"Me too. But it'll be okay," Rory said and pointed to her leg. Lorelai ran her hand through her daughter's hair.

"I think I should call the travel agency. The doctor was right. We shouldn't go on the trip like this." She informed her daughter then.

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. I mean, I know that I can't go on the trip, but that doesn't mean that you can't. I thought about this mom. I will move in with grandma and grandpa for the time being and you go on the trip"

"What? No, Rory," Lorelai shook her head so that her hair flew around her face.

"Come on mom. You spent a lot of money on this trip. We're not going to get our money back now. And you already made time for the trip and I can't do anything with this cast. You would be bored and I would be no help lying around all day. Just ask Sookie or Luke if they can go with you," Rory said.

"But still. If you can't go, I don't wanna go either. This was supposed to be our thing. We've been talking about this forever. You planned all this, looked up museums and hostels. I just can't go there without you. It wouldn't be the same."

"But Europe with Sookie would be fun", Rory tried again.

"It would be, but Sookie is busy. She has this catering service and she is pregnant. Backpacking while pregnant is not a good idea and I am not Hulk Hogan, I wouldn't be able to carry her backpack as well". Lorelai sighed.

"Then ask Luke. I am sure he'll say no at first, but I'm sure he would go with you"

"Why Luke?" Lorelai asked surprised.

"I don't know. He is a good friend of yours and you like him. He feeds us, he takes care of us and I would trust him to take care of you, so that you wouldn't get in trouble in Europe".

"I wouldn't get in trouble!" Lorelai protested.

"And he is like Hulk Hogan. I guess he could carry your backpack together with his own. Ask him mom!" Rory tried to convince her.

"Rory, really, this isn't a good idea. And Luke is going on a cruise with Nicole, to get married or whatever", Lorelai shrugged and her eyes became a tad sadder.

"And Luke getting married to Nicole is bad? Mom, Luke doesn't want to go on this cruise; that was more than obvious. I'm sure he'll come with you if you ask him".

"Rory I don't want to go with anyone but you", Lorelai said a bit louder now.

"Mom, we can't do this trip because of this stupid cast. This isn'going to change, no matter if you stay here or go to Europe. If you don't ask Luke I will ask him." Rory threatened.

"You can't even get up by yourself, how are you going to ask him?" Lorelai teased her.

"There is a thing called phone and I can use it, with or without a broken leg", Rory grinned back.

"I don't know Rory", Lorelai sighed and got up from the bed.

"Think about it mom. We would be here, the money would be gone and Luke would get hitched", Rory summed it up and Lorelai left the room with another sigh.

She sat down in the dark living-room and thought about the whole situation. The sentence "Luke would get hitched" echoed in her head and she didn't like to think about that at all. Luke couldn't get married. He just couldn't…

-xxxxxx-

Luke was cleaning up the tables as Lorelai walked in. He was still in his dress-shirt and slacks, he hadn't bothered to change. When he turned around to look at her he saw that she was still wearing the red dress from the graduation.

"Hey Luke." She greeted him and sounded strange

"Lorelai, hi. Where's Rory?" he asked her.

"At home, asleep. The events from today really got to her," she shrugged and gave him a small smile, which he returned. He nodded.

"Is she still sore?"

"The pain medication is doing a pretty good job." She informed him

"I'm glad", he replied honestly and looked at her, trying to figure out what it was exactly that seemed strange.She nodded, absently.

"What's up?" He suddenly started to wonder why she was here and he wanted to know what was wrong with her.

"I just wanted to say something to you, in case we don't see each other before you go on your trip", she said and started to fiddle with her hands.

"Sure, what?" he asked her.

"Don't go!" she said as fast as she could.

"What?" he asked befuddled.

"I don't want you to go on a trip with Nicole and get engaged," she explained, her eyes focused on the floor.

He gave her a confused look. "Where is this coming from?"

"You and I both know that's what would end up happening. Actually, I was thinking that maybe you could go on the trip to Europe with me?" she asked very quietly.

"The trip you were going on with Rory?"

"She can't go now that she fractured her leg. I wasn't planning on going either, at first. But Rory convinced me the go anyway. I would lose a lot of money because the flights are already paid for and some of the hostels as well. I called the travel agency and they said that it wouldn't cost me anything extra if you go with me instead of Rory, but that they won't give me back any of my money either. I know that you spent a lot of money on that trip with Nicole, but please, go with me."

Luke was staring at her and couldn't believe what he was hearing. She wanted him to go with her as a confirmation that he wouldn't marry Nicole. He thought about telling her that he and Nicole had broken up this morning when he had called her to cancel the trip, because he couldn't get Lorelai's insinuations out of his head. Nicole had yelled at him when he had tried to explain, but she had been right: he didn't want to go on a cruise with her. He had no idea what to do with her for two weeks on a cruise. He sometimes had trouble finding something to talk about with her when they were in a restaurant for longer than two hours.

And now Lorelai wanted him to come with her. She was driving him crazy all the time, but it was never boring with her. But such a long trip with Lorelai Gilmore?

Luke looked at her, doubt clearly written all over his face when she started pouting…

-xxxxxx-

"American Airlines flight 275 to Paris is ready for boarding" a voice echoed through the airport and all the passengers got up and took their hand-luggage.

Lorelai looked at Luke, who was sitting next to her, flipping through a sports-magazine. "That's us."

He nodded. "Are you ready?"

"Definitely." She smiled and stood up. He stood up as well, taking their passports out of his pocket.

"Then let's go." He nodded.

**TBC**

written by: ProFfeSser and karana


	2. Prague one

**Chapter 1****: A joke**

Little did the Parisians know that their beautiful city was, even though only briefly, honored by the presence of dazzling Lorelai Gilmore and her, a little less radiant, attendant Luke Danes, of course.  
Exhausted from the flight Luke and Lorelai got off the plane and walked through the air-bridge into the airport building.

"Explain me again whose genius idea it was to fly to Paris and then take the train through whole Europe, to start the trip in Prague? Why didn't you book a flight to Prague directly or start here in Paris. We sat in this crowded and narrow airplane for hours and hours and now we have to sit even longer in a train?" Luke ranted.

"Because it is cheaper this way. The flight to Paris was so cheap, but Rory said we have to start the trip in the east and then travel to the west of Europe, because in the East everything is foreign and mysterious, but in the West it's basically like in the USA. It makes perfect sense when you think about it Luke", Lorelai told him, but wasn't her normal chipper self. She was exhausted from the flight and a long train ride wasn't that tempting, not even for her.

"That makes absolutely no sense! We could easily have started in Paris and then travel over to Prague. By the way: Prague? What the hell is there to see in Prague? Former communists which now live in poverty because they aren't able yet to live with industry and stock markets?" Luke went on and on and questioned the whole Europe trip in the end. He was tired, he was cranky and he was in a foreign country and had another endless train ride ahead of him. Lorelai led the way through the airport meanwhile, and after they got their backpacks she knew they needed to get to the train-station.

Lorelai somehow managed to ask a very small French woman behind an information counter how to get to the Paris central station.  
While listening to his grievances with only one ear she directed him to the stop of the shuttle bus to terminal 2. From there they would get on the RER to reach Paris' main station Gare du Nord to finally get on the train to Prague. She could only hope that Luke would stop complaining somewhere along the journey

"Here we go", snorted Luke while putting down their backpacks. He had insisted on carrying both backpacks and the provisions bag out of the train Lorelai didn't seem to entirely concur with his manner.

"I told you, you should have let me carry my backpack myself. You are keeping me from the genuine backpacking experience!", she tried vehemently to get back control at least over the provisions bag.

"Hello", without Lorelai or Luke noticing a middle aged guy had come up to them and was now holding a pretty dingy laminated piece of paper for them to see.

"Oooh, this is great! Rory told me about this. You can rent apartments at the train-station for little money. These are great apartments and Rory and I agreed that we would do this, so we didn't make any reservations", Lorelai told Luke excitedly.

"What? I thought you made reservations and that's why we had to travel to Prague immediately. So we could have easily stayed at Paris for one night, get some sleep and then come here, instead of jumping onto this dirty train right away?", Luke started to rant again.

"Great apartment. No expensive. Two room, luxury, only 52 Euros a night", the man interrupted them in broken English.

"I don't know", Luke shook his head, but the urge to sleep became stronger and stronger.

"With room-service, half board, hostess good food", the guy went on.

"Come on, Luke. Let's get the real- backpacking experience right away. Please", she said and started to pout.

"Okay", Luke gave in and then turned to the young man in front of them, "Where is this apartment?" he asked him.

"Oh, Taxi. I give taxi man address", he said and waved for them to follow him to the taxi stand. He walked to a taxi and told the man an address and he nodded. But when they just wanted to get into the car, Lorelai stopped.

"I need to call Rory!", she said, handed Luke her backpack and wanted to hurry off to a payphone nearby, when Luke stopped her.

"Already again? Now?", Luke really looked annoyed. "We can't make that cab driver and the apartment guy waiting, Lorelai. Do you even have the right currency for that thing? It looks like Kafka used it to report the Defenestrations. And would you PLEASE not just put your purse there? You are practically inviting even non-professionals to steal it!"  
Lorelai picked up her purse, shrugged her shoulders, meekly dropped her head and followed Luke into the car without a word.

She was really annoyed with him. The entire journey he had been that way. Not that he wasn't grumpy usually, Grumpy in fact was his middle name, she suspected - and made a mental note to ask him about Sleepy, Dopey, Doc and the rest of the party, as soon as he was giving her a chance - but he had seemed really depressed sometimes, everything was annoying him and whatever she said or did, he criticized her, if he did talk at all. Half of the time on the train he hadn't said a word, despite her efforts to jolly him along with several very funny train games and cold beer at the station in Pilsen. Nothing seemed to cheer him up.

"What kind of language is that?", grumbled Luke more to himself than to her when the driver turned on the radio. And Lorelai chose to look very interested out of the window.   
'Great', she thought, 'is that, how it's gonna be for the next weeks?! Rory, why, why, why did you need to break your leg now of all times?! Stupid offspring, never there if you'd really need them...I have to tell her that as soon as I'm finally allowed to call her by Mr. Party Pooper here.'

The cab left the station driveway and enqueued in the heavy traffic on the streets of Prague.

"Hey Luke", Lorelai addressed him after a few minutes of driving. 

"Mhmm?" he only made without turning his head to look at her.

"Did you pay attention which address he gave him? I mean if he drives us to an underground drug ring now, we wouldn't even notice", she said and was relieved when Luke looked at her. He looked tired and somehow angry and she felt sorry that she couldn't really do anything to make him feel better. She could only hope that he would be in a better mood after some sleep.

"As if we notice with the address. I can't tell where we are going, you can't tell where we are going, so I guess we just have to trust him", Luke grumbled and then went to back to looking out of the window, so Lorelai followed suit and remained silent for once.

When they passed a big street with some kind of green space in the middle, big trees on the sides and lots of tourists everywhere the cab driver pointed out to that place.

"Vaclavske nemesti" said the cab driver with grave indifference. "Wenceslas Square" he added with a sudden inspiration, that they probably wouldn't know the Czech name.

"Oh look", cried Lorelai, with a mixture of real and exaggerated enthusiasm, "there's a KFC! Home! Hungry!" She imitated a dog licking the glass window of the cab. Luke showed no reaction.

Some minutes later which for Lorelai it seemed like an eternity, they reached a street and stopped in front of an ugly and plain house. Lorelai caught a glimpse at the street name, read "Nuselka" and was sure, that she couldn't memorize that word. The cab driver said something in Czech, which was supposable the fare. They didn't understand. He then indignantly wrote down the numbers on a small piece of paper and Luke paid the sum without saying something.

They got out and as the driver didn't make any attempts to help them with their luggage. After an unnerved grunt from Luke, Lorelai signalized the driver to open the trunk and tried to get the backpacks out herself, but wasn't successful because they were so heavy.

"Step back", Luke told her and got both backpacks out without any troubles.

"Wow, you're strong! I think I'll call you Super-Luke from now on", she teased him.

"Jeez", Luke muttered and rolled his eyes, helped her to put on the backpack.

"Or would like Super Danes better? Or Wonder Luke? Wonder Luke the Super Danes", she went on and grinned. Luke turned around and gave her a pointed look.

"Okay, okay, shutting up now", she mumbled and held up her hands in surrender. Luke nodded briefly and then they walked towards the hotel.

From the entrance of the house to the fourth floor they followed a shabby little blue sign with an "H" on it, guessing it meant "Hotel" or something like it.  
There they were welcomed by a stoutly woman, who didn't say much, but was obviously informed about who they were and what they wanted there. She led them to a door in a dark corridor, gave them the keys to the door and left them alone.

Luke and Lorelai stood in the semi darkness; the tiny vestibule was lit only by one weak light bulb. Luke took a step and opened the door in front of them. They now were looking into what was one of the bedrooms. Lorelai put down her bag and went through the door.

The room was looking dull, the air in it felt dusty and the furniture appeared greasy.

There was a small window on the opposite wall, half covered by a screamingly ugly curtain. Luke was making a groaning sound behind her. Lorelai went across the room instinctively put the curtain aside and tried to open the window - without success. She looked back to Luke and shrugged her shoulders rather helplessly. Luke was probing the wall to his left, where Lorelai now also discovered another door. Without a word Luke now opened this door and they stared into yet another room. They could only guess that this was the second bed room, however there was nothing in the windowless chamber but a small pallet on one wall to support that theory.

"I suppose that is my room then", said Luke with spiritless, yet painful sarcasm.  
Lorelai pretended not to listen and thought about Rory who had mentioned an old prison that had been turned into a hotel.   
She went past him and opened a shabby door to their left. And there was the bathroom. It was dirty and smelling intensely of mildew. She wrinkled her nose and closed the door again.

"Sooo, now what?" Lorelai asked and sat down on her bed.

"Now what? Now what? Now we have to pay over fifty Euros a night for this old and smelly hotel room, because you insisted to rent a hotel room from a guy who didn't even had all of his teeth anymore!" Luke ranted angrily.  
"The question was more about the question if we sleep first and then grab something to eat or the other way round", Lorelai sighed.

"Well, if we go to sleep now we will never find the right rhythm and our trip will be "Europe at night". So we should go out now and sleep later", Luke said.

"Ok, will we leave the backpacks here or take them with us?" Lorelai asked.

"I guess we can leave them here. I mean, where's the difference? Getting them stolen right out of the hotel room or on the street? That way we don't have to carry them around to get our stuff stolen", Luke replied.

"Ok, good. Maybe we could look for another hostel or apartment while we're in the city?" Lorelai suggested.

"We'll see", Luke shrugged and took his wallet from his backpack and adjusted his cap.

"Let's go?" he asked.

"Let's go", Lorelai nodded and got off the bed with a groan.

Before leaving the room Lorelai looked back one last time and saw something on the tiny table in the vestibule. Out of a small bowl she fished a business card with the owner's name and address on it.

When they left they didn't see the woman again that let them in. Down on the street Lorelai compared the street name and the names at the door bells with those on the visit card and subsequently put it in her purse with some reassurance.

Neither Luke nor Lorelai had any idea, where in the city they were exactly or in which direction Prague downtown would be. So they just started walking down the street in the direction they came from, hoping to find a cab soon.  
They backtracked the way from their former journey, passed a green place and finally found a metro station. As a precaution Lorelai wrote down the name of the station before they got on a train.

They got off the metro at "Mustek" and when they left the station they were standing at the bottom of Wenceslas Square, that they had passed before.

"Food!" cried Lorelai and started to goose-step. Luke tried to keep up with her in the tourist crowd and followed her closely - after a few steps he bumped into her.  
"Ah! I really have to call Rory now!" Lorelai explained, not caring too much about Luke's cries of pain. She took a second to look for a payphone and then marched in the according direction. Luke followed with a safety clearance.

"Hey honey!", Lorelai yelled into the phone when Rory answered.

"Hey mom! How's Europe?" Rory yelled back.

"Well the airports and train-stations are all right as far as I can tell. We arrived yesterday afternoon in Paris and then took the train to Prague. We met a guy at the station who offered rooms and we took one". Lorelai reported.

"Oh no, you didn't!" Rory exclaimed.

"Of course we did. You said we should do this, remember?"

"Mom, that was a joke. It's common knowledge that one shouldn't rent a room from guys at the stations. They rooms are shabby and dirty and they completely overcharge you. I can't believe Luke let you do this".

"Well, I guess he is so annoyed he would agree to anything at the moment", Lorelai shrugged and looked over her shoulder to see if Luke was within hearing-distance.

"So he is his usually grumpy self even in Europe", Rory laughed.

"No, he is more like annoyed, angry and hyper-grumpy", Lorelai sighed.

"Oh no. Did you he have a fight?" Rory asked worried.

"No not really. I guess he just doesn't like the trip and my company so far", Lorelai shrugged.

"Of course he likes your company", Rory tried to assure her.

"Yeah well... we'll see. So how's your leg?" Lorelai changed the topic.

"It still hurts a bit, but it's okay. I already got up and walked around on the crutches", Rory replied.

"That's good to hear, honey, but don't overdo it. I have to hang up the time has run out and Luke is looking even more annoyed now. I'll call you again as soon as possible!" Lorelai said.

"Ok, bye mum. Say hi to Luke from me. Love you!"

"Love you too hon'!" Lorelai said and hung up with a sigh.

Just when Lorelai hung up and turned around to look for Luke, he appeared beside her.

"Rory says hi", Lorelai told him and if she could trust her eyes there was a tiny little smile in his face. Lorelai took that as a good sign and tried to be not her fidgety self too much, while telling him that her daughter was just fine. Trying not to anger the grumpy beast inside him, she then asked gently what he wanted to do now, if having lunch at the KFC they had seen before would find his approval. It did.

They went to KFC, Lorelai got excited about the little maps of Prague, they were having on their place sets and Luke dwelled on his taciturnity, but didn't show as much disapproval with her as before.

After their lunch they left KFC and somehow went back, down Wenceslas Square without talking.  
They crossed a street and Lorelai spotted some sales both offering knickknack and souvenirs. She headed there instantly and Luke followed in silent agreement.  
He even offered some comments on the various items that lay on the displays, when investigating woven shoulder bags he wondered who in God's name would need those, when seeing little water pipes he uttered his gratefulness, that his sister wasn't with them to buy one and when seeing a whole booth filled with bonsai trees he simply started to laugh.

"People really buy that crap?" Lorelai tried to drag him along before the owner of said booth would become too angry.

This little scene however seemed to have brightened Luke's mood a bit and the two of them had a pretty good time strolling around the hundreds of little stands and examining all the offered treasures. Only if Lorelai spent too much time admiring some handmade jewelry, Luke got nervous, and would stand close to her, inspect the table skeptic and make depreciatory remarks about the crafting or quality of the object in question. Lorelai would then soon go on to the next booth, not wanting to provoke any argument with the artists.

After wandering through a lot of tiny streets filled with stands and little shops they reached the Old Town Square.

Admiring the old buildings and the two churches in the place and with Lorelai paying special attention to the horses that patiently awaited customers in the middle of the square they took a long turn around it.  
When they had nearly completed their round, Luke noticed a tourist information in the Old Town Hall.

"There!" he cried. "Tourist information!"

"TOURIST information?! We don't do tourist information!" objected Lorelai, and wasn't willing to join asking people in a tourist information. But Luke wasn't to be stopped anymore. He now really wanted to know more about where they were, what the history of this place was and a map. He needed a map, at least to find out where their dingy little apartment was.  
Lorelai refused to come in and waited outside. When Luke came out again, after what had seemed an eternity to Lorelai, he had a bunch of brochures and maps in his hands.  
He looked at Lorelai surprised and asked her why she didn't come inside with him, when there were so many helpful people. Lorelai tried to reason with him, making him understand that independent and individual backpacking didn't correspond, but he just mentioned, that, had Rory been there, she surely would have checked out the tourist information.

It was getting late and after wandering aimless through the streets for quiet some time Lorelai insisted on having a drink somewhere. It was getting dark and her feet hurt and things seemed somehow desperate just walking through streets, without end, and without conversation.  
Luke agreed pretty wordlessly.

"Left, right, right." said Lorelai and quickened her pace.

"What?!" Luke asked, slightly interested, but mainly trying to catch up to her new cruising speed.

"That is where the pub is."

"Where is what pub? How would you know where a pub is? You never put your nose in one of my tourist guides and now you know where the pub is. Which pub, by the way?"

"Just follow."

They had just passed a big building with a clock on the side and were now on some major street with less pretty looking buildings. "Revolu?ní" read Lorelai at a sign and at a big ugly brown building that seemed to accommodate a department store, at the next possibility she turned, as announced to the left into a slightly smaller street called "Dlouhá".  
They turned right, took a few steps and there was the pub on the side of the street. It looked cozy from the outside, a small glass door with dark window frames, the letters over the entrance said "Blatouch".

"I told you so." said Lorelai, obviously content with her finding, and opened the door.  
The inside of the bar was lit only poorly, the scarce clientele looked like a seminar at film school.

A little later they were sitting at a small table on some kind of wooden second floor, both staring rather depressed and beat into their glasses. The tables around them were slowly filling up with people.

"Why didn't you want to go to the tourist information? They could have given us some tips about where to go and what to avoid", Luke broke the silence after a while.

"Well, it's not necessary", she protested.

"I really think it is. We have no idea where to go".

"You might have no idea, but I do. Rory put some guides in my backpack and told me to use them. Which I did, before we came here. I haven't learned it by heart, but we can use it to walk around the city. It's not that big, so it should be fine", she said. "It even has recommendations for restaurants, shopping, food and drinks. It says that you have to taste the beer they have here at le once. It's a must. This stuff is called "Velvet", how cool is that?", she smiled proudly because of her knowledge.

"Of course, the name of the beer you remember but sights and streets.. nada. And you could have said something about having these guides, so I didn't need to buy them", Luke said and she just wanted to protest when the waitress interrupted them.

"Excuse me," she said with a hardly noticeable accent, "would you mind sharing your table with that guy over there?" She pointed to a table for four occupied by one middle aged man. "We would need that table. He's a very nice guy, a regular in here, works just down the street. So?" she smiled at them.  
Luke grumbled that he meant to leave soon anyway and didn't care. Lorelai tried a smile and the waitress went over to the other table.

"This thing here is smelly and dirty and now we even have to share our table? Wouldn't it be fun if I would do that in the diner? Just sit Kirk with whoever stops by as a tourist. I guess it would only take weeks before the tourists would refuse to step one foot into our town or somebody would have killed him. Or Taylor.. also a very pleasant companion at your table whether you're a tourist or a citizen," Luke ranted.

"Don't forget about Miss Patty. The male tourists wouldn't be safe anymore…" Lorelai laughed.

"We really should just pay and leave this crappy…" Luke started again when the man came over. He greeted them nicely and thanked them for taking him in on their table. Lorelai and Luke said hello back, but then concentrated again on their hotel-situation.  
After listening for some minutes the other guy interrupted them.

"Sorry, to coot in, I couldn't help but overhear you're not happy with your hotel room."  
Luke looked at him irritated. What was it that that fellow wanted? Make fun of their misery? Take advantage of two obviously naive American tourists? Before he could retort in the ungracious manner he practiced over the last hours, or probably his whole life, Lorelai turned to the guy.

"Is there a hotel you could recommend? We need nothing special, but it should be clean at least and not that expensive", Lorelai informed him.

"I could. My name is Tomas and I am concierge in Haštal hotel, is street Haštalská, is here. Street here, near pub. We have one room, man did not come, had fight with his wife. Room is free, just come, I give you special price", he informed them.

"You could do that? That would be so great, you have no idea!", Lorelai gushed.

"We really need another place to stay", Luke nodded less enthusiastically.

"One problem with the room", Tomas then said.

"Here it comes", Luke muttered.

"No double bed in the room. Only two beds, but we can move the beds so you have one", he told them.

"No, that's no problem. We aren't a couple. Just friends", Lorelai laughed, like he had made a funny joke.

"Ah, friends good", Tomas also laughed, although he wasn't really sure where the joke was.

When all was settled Tomas offered to pick them up in the morning, before his shift started. They accepted the offer and agreed for him to meet them at 9.30 a.m. with a cab in the street of their actual residence.

At the end of their conversation Lorelai thought that Luke's mood was better than it had been since they landed in Paris. Meeting an actual friendly Czech guy and having the prospect of a more suitable place, seemed to cheer him up.  
Noticing that they were growing really tired, their new friend said good-bye, once more confirming that everybody had the address and date for their change of rooms right.  
Luke signaled the waitress for the tab, paid, surprisingly even gave her a tip, and they left to spend one night in the sinkhole that was their apartment.

_TBC._

written by: harvardaspirant, ProFfeSser and karana


	3. Prague two

**Chapter 2****: The shoe-bag**

The next morning they got up and at first had a little fight about who can use the little attractive bathroom how long. Lorelai insisted on her going first, because her need for coffee was growing every second. If he wouldn't let her go first, he would have to get coffee or else.  
Luke gave in and waited till Lorelai was done.  
She then went out and managed to find a little baker's shop, with four small paper cups of coffee and a little snack she came back to their apartment just when Luke left the bathroom.

"You know, you can't be Mr. Grumpy Puss all day long and surely not for the rest of our trip," Lorelai said to him, smiled placidly and handed him a cup with peppermint-tea and a Danish. He didn't respond, but something in his attitude felt like he was at least trying to send out benevolent waves. Silently they had an improvised breakfast.

Not really wanting to delay their departure any further, they gathered together their things and left the room. Luke went to find the owner of the place, the woman from the other day or somebody else in charge. He soon came back and announced that he had paid successfully for the room.

Down on the street Tomas was already expecting them. He led them to a waiting cab and helped them put their luggage in the trunk.

Ten minutes later the three of them got out of a cab in front of an old building in a quiet street with lots of high old buildings.

As Lorelai had arranged, according to Rory's warnings about extortionate cab drivers in Prague, Tomas dealt with the cab driver and Luke got the luggage out of the trunk of the car. He fought off Lorelai's attempts to help him with that and shouldered both backpacks, ignoring that the weight nearly put him out of balance.  
Waving and smiling their Czech friend directed them into the hotel entrance. Luke got stuck in the half opened door, but still refused to let go of Lorelai's bag. Stubbornly struggling through he finally made it and they followed the man up the less-than-well-lit staircase. Every two steps Lorelai glanced over her shoulder to see if Luke was keeping up, but she didn't dare to offer any assistance to him again.

"Cheere we are", said Tomas promisingly and unlocked a grand door of dark wood on the fourth floor.  
They entered the promised big room. It's walls were painted in a light yellow, there was a bed in the middle of the room and a smaller one on the side wall. To the right a small door led into the bathroom, which had light blue walls and white tiles.

"Choo like?", asked the guy. Lorelai just smiled at him and took the keys from him.  
"Choo just come down letter chand we will deal with the formalities."  
She thanked him, he left and she closed the door behind him.  
As soon as the door closed Luke turned to Lorelai.

"But that is only one room."

"Yeah. Didn't you realize that yesterday?"

"It's just ONE room. Where am I to sleep?" He took a look inside the closet.

"Yeah, it's one room, but we have two beds", Lorelai informed him.

"I know, but still…where I am going to sleep?" he repeated.

"Ah Luke, come on! It's not like we never slept in the same room before. You remember the night when the Inn burned down not that long ago? I crashed at your place. It wasn't a problem then, it's not a problem now. But if you want to we can move the bed to the other side of the room, so the distance is bigger and you don't have to be afraid I'm going to attack you in your sleep", Lorelai said and motioned to the bed in the middle of the room.

"Then the door wouldn't open anymore", Luke shrugged when he realized how ridiculous this argument was.

"Guess you have to be strong then and face the danger", she smiled.

"I'll live", Luke nodded. "So what are we gonna do now? You looked into that guide of yours?" he asked her then and sat down on one of the beds.

"Yeah, I did", she said and took out the guide before she sat down next to him and handed him the guide." Rory actually left some notes what we should visit".

"Charles Bridge, Jew Cemetry, Pragues Castle, StrahovLibrary…" Luke read out aloud what Rory had marked."Why don't we visit the Jew Quarter and the Charles Bridge today? They are close to each other?" he asked her then after he had looked at the map.

"Ok, great. Then we could stop at Che Marcel before and I could get some coffee", Lorelai smiled and made Luke groan.

"Hey, it's even on the way", she told him and he just sighed in defeat, knowing he couldn't win this.

They entered the Che Marcel and Luke as well as Lorelai where at once feeling at home in the little cozy bistro, people were talking loudly at their tables, the waiters were running about, speedy and bustling, but not a bit hectic. An undefined smell of tasty food was in the air.  
Luke and Lorelai sat down at a free table in one of the window slots. Soon a waiter came and they ordered baguettes with vegetables and ham.  
And when they came, Lorelai didn't know whether to eat or talk because she was so ravished by the sauce.  
Luke was feeling a little jealous, he always had had the impression, that his diner food was, what was actually meeting Lorelai's tastes, but he savored the sandwiches, too.  
Having finished her baguette, Lorelai was feeling really content. That was, how she imagined her trip to Europe. It was a shame, that Rory wasn't here, they would have had a lot of fun, to be sure. But right now, she actually didn't want to change a thing. Luke was looking pretty content, too, she thought. The little mark of anger between his eyes that she had gotten so used to, over the last days, was getting smaller. No wonder, thought Lorelai, that kind of food must be able to sooth the wildest grumbler.

Some time later, accompanied by bright sunshine, the two of them were strolling along the Karlova street, leading to the Charles bridge.

Suddenly Lorelai disappeared into one of the thousands of little souvenir shops. As Luke found the previous five shops he had visited all equally uninteresting he waited outside.  
After a few minutes Lorelai came out of the shop again, waving vehemently about with a bright orange colored umbrella. Luke set up in front of her, grimacing and demanding to know what in the world for they might need and umbrella on such a sunny day.  
Lorelai put her index finger before her mouth, hushing him and then she pointed to several tourist groups around them, which all, without exception, were being led by a tourist guide holding up a brightly colored umbrella. She thought it incredibly funny.  
Luke now kept some distance from her, as they continued towards the Charles bridge, and Lorelai intentionally tried to confuse poor tourists with her umbrella. Like some little troll she jumped back and forth, piercing the air with her umbrella, pointing here and there and shouting imaginary information about the Charles Bridge back to Luke, who was really concerned not to appear to be acquainted with her.  
When they finally reached and crossed Charles Bridge Lorelai gave her worn out umbrella to one of the artists, who were sitting on the bridge, selling their works, and focused on being a tourist herself again. Luke relaxed.  
The bridge was filled with masses of people, everybody seemed to think this was THE place to be in Prague. So they could only walk very slowly over the bridge and had enough time to admire the big statues that were standing on the side walls.  
Finally they arrived at the other side, Lorelai took Luke at his arm and pointed down one side of the bridge.

"Looks familiar?" she asked him.

"No, not really."

"Well," she said triumphantly. "There they did some of the scenes of 'Mission Impossible'."  
They engaged in a discussion about how irritating Tom Cruise was.

Later, even though Lorelai claimed her feet hurt and her nose would surely become sun burnt, they walked through the Old Jewish Quarter.  
And their visit to the beautiful, old cemetery there had some special quality.

They didn't talk much, if at all, but somehow this silence was not as uncomfortable to Lorelai as it normally was. She didn't feel the need to fill it with chatter or nonsense. So they spent over an hour wandering around the old graveyard, wondering about who the people where, whose graves they saw and how they had died. From afar they watched an extended family gathering around an ancient grave.  
Lorelai wondered how important and strong Luke's Jewish heritage was, but she didn't want to disturb the atmosphere right now, so she didn't ask him.

They returned shortly to their hotel room. Lorelai simply couldn't go out for dinner and whatever they might be doing afterwards in the same set of clothes she had been wearing all day long. She was hot and sweaty and when Luke didn't pay attention for a minute she went to the bathroom and took a shower. She had mentioned something like this before, but Luke thought it would just take too long and how could she possibly need two showers in one day.

Sitting in "U Lékárny", one of Pragues old beer taverns, later, Luke seemed to have forgotten his anger about her trick, as he couldn't help it, but enjoy the sight of spick and span Lorelai.  
After a very hefty dinner of beer, traditional roast and dumplings, they were engaged in one of their discussions about where exactly to go and what to do. Luke slowly developed a deep understanding and longing for real guided tours. Some kind of journey, where never the question of "What now?" arises.

"I wanna go to the Black Theatre", Lorelai decided after flipping through her tour-guide.

"What's that?" Luke asked, after he had searched in his own tour-guide, but couldn't find it.

" It'a vanguard type of theatre with a mixture of music, light, film, ballet and dance. They also have pantomime, acrobatics, black light and gallantly show which was first introduced by Alfred Radock 1958 in Brussels", Lorelai summarized the information in her guide for him.

"Or we could go to the "Laterna Magika", that seems to be the same thing, just more popular", Luke said after another look in his guide and now Lorelai started to flip sides in her guide again.

"Laterna Magika…ah there… Rory left a note on that one: Once cutting-edge, now tourist trap. Don't go there, isn't worth it", she read aloud, "Go to Black Theatre Jiri Srenec, way better if you believe the internet forums", she read the rest.

"So I guess the Black Theatre it is", Luke said and closed his guide.

It was the third day of their stay in Prague. Luke and Lorelai were sitting one of the old Coffee Houses, the city was famous for. In former times the coffee houses had been meeting points for philosophers, artist and writers, who had shared inventive disputes and also sought comfort for an hours in the arms of some trollop. But the coffee houses also had served as a warm place for not-so-wealthy people, who could spend several hours over one cup of coffee.

The whole morning Luke and Lorelai had spent visiting the Old Town again. Lorelai insisted on buying at least some souvenirs, some jewelry for Rory, or one of the handcrafted bags to put the other stuff in, or some of the handmade soaps. Luke tried to make her see that it was just plain stupid to buy all the souvenirs during their first stop of their tour. It would be wiser, to buy everything during their last stop, most sapient to actually buy it right at the airport before they would go home again. But Lorelai wasn't interested in wise or sapient. She wanted, what she now saw. And, by the way, she had to bring tons of items to Rory from each one of their stops in any case. The poor child, how could she otherwise get an idea of what she missed out.

So they had made several turns about the Old Town, had inspected each and every booth and store again and Luke hadn't been allowed to drag her away from anything that sparkled, moved, made a sound, smelled good or felt good.

Right now they were having a grim contention with one of the waiters in a dark green livery.  
The waiter looked at them with a blank face, slightly rolled his eyes and enravished into an unmotivated shrug. Without further attempts to keep the conversation alive, he then turned, with an airy, rehearsed tilting of his empty tray, and determined went to the counter.  
Lorelai concluded that the assiduous man probably thought, what else was there to order but coffee in a coffee house, and would bring them such.  
Luke was sliding antsy to and fro on the worn out bench.

"So, you think he got that?", he asked while waving about, imitating Lorelai's previous conversation with the waiter.

"Well, I guess the houses are famous because of the houses, not because of the coffee", Luke shrugged.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that although the buildings and cafés themselves are beautiful, the coffee sucks, at least when you're believing your own guide", Luke enlightened her.

"But al those famous… Czech… philosopher… men.. why would they have come here if the coffee is that bad?" she asked.

"Well,I guess you can find out for yourself now", Luke grinned when the coffee came and Lorelai took a sip.

"I guess it was to discuss philosophy", Lorelai said after she had tried the coffee and made a face.

After an extended stay of nearly three hours and trying out different varieties of coffee they left the famous coffee house invigorated and relaxed.

"Well then, let's go and have a look at that old castle then," said Luke opened his city map.

They spent the whole afternoon running up and down the little streets and serpentines that formed the Prague Castle and the Lesser Side surrounding it.  
In the Strahov Library Lorelai got more homesick for Rory then she had been the whole trip so far. Standing in the ancient library, surrounded by ornamented bookshelves and gold-plated furniture she was pitying Rory so much, that Luke had to interfere at some point and lead her out of the room.  
Lorelai compensated by going to the adherent gift shop and buying about 10 postcards with pictures from the library, which she intended to send to Rory each and all, and all on that very same day.

Pretty exhausted they reached their hotel room. Luke fell on his bed with the shoes on. Lorelai went to the bathroom to freshen up and when she came back she nagged so long until Luke gave in and agreed to go out again and have drink somewhere. Lorelai consulted her travel guide with Rory's remarks in it and found a famous jazz club in the city, "Reduta Jazz Club:  
Bill Clinton played there" had Rory written in a marginal note. Lorelai read on and then found another jazz club, that Rory though would be "full of atmosphere", as she had commented. After skimming through the description in the book Luke thought, it would be nice, too.  
So they went to the Ungelt Jazz & Blues Club, which wasn't far from their hotel. Sitting there, Lorelai found and enjoyed the atmosphere, Rory mentioned. She flirted with the bartender, who was enthusiastically playing that game with her and was really thinking her quite wild, as he obviously thought Luke to be her husband.

Ignorant of what went off between those two, Luke was wondering, what made him think of visiting a JAZZ club in the first place, but tried to find comfort in the admittedly good beer.

The night before Lorelai and Luke had agreed to sleep in on their last day in Prague. As their train wasn't leaving until 1am that evening and Luke was afraid he wouldn't get much sleep on that tour either, and Lorelai never minded some bonus time in the morning.  
Considering that the hotel breakfast was only served by 10 am, Lorelai had made a private deal with one of the breakfast waiters, involving a very generous tip. He would arrange for a big thermos with fresh coffee to be brought to their door around 10.30. She had insisted that the waiter would by no means knock on the door, she supposed that Luke would not be amused finding his cherished sleep disturbed by her ways of satisfying her unnatural needs for coffee.

Sometime around half past ten Lorelai awoke, timed by her inner clock perhaps, anticipating her own private elixir, or maybe wooed by a faint and rather imagined scent of coffee that leaked through the door.  
She rolled out of her bed, very quietly opened the door and found the desired fuel, some milk and sugar, and two mugs on a little tray. She took it to the bed, poured herself a cup of coffee and wrapped her bed sheet around her.  
The sun was shining against the thick drapery. Opening them just a slit Lorelai got behind it and sat on the window sill.  
Looking out the window down to the quiet street she sipped her coffee and was quite contented.  
In the background Luke was gently snoring and babbling incomprehensible words.

After Lorelai had finished her coffee she silently gathered some cloths, went to the bathroom and took a quick shower.  
She was determined to astonish Luke by being all ready to go when he woke up.  
When she left the bathroom she put her stuff rather carelessly into her backpack and then took to the task of waking her snoring travel companion. Before she stopped for a moment, trying to understand what he was babbling, but couldn't make out real words.

"Mmh.. what?" Luke mumbled when she shook him.

"Good morning Vietnam, time to get up", Lorelai told him happily.

"Why are you up?" he asked confused.

"Couldn't sleep anymore", she shrugged.

"Then why are you so chipper?" he wrinkled his forehead by raising his eyebrows.

"Already had coffee", she grinned.

"Aah, that explains", he said and sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes.

"You already showered?" he asked her then.

"Yup", she nodded proudly.

"Ok, then I'm gonna take a shower", he muttered and trudged into the bathroom.

"And now you already had breakfast," Luke said somewhat disapprovingly when he came back from the bathroom.

"Oh no!" cried Lorelai. "Now we are going to have breakfast!"  
She explained that there was yet another coffee house they hadn't been to and that this one would serve a very good brunch and that this was exactly where they would be heading now.

After enjoying the indeed very good brunch, Lorelai stated her plan to go and see the "Dancing House". Luke had long found out that there were way too many important and famous things in Prague to be seen in a short stay, so to him it didn't matter what things exactly they went to visit, and be it a dancing house.  
From the old city center they started down the Jungmannova street, visited the New Town Hall and Charles Place on their way, then came to the shores of the Vltava and continued their stroll down the river, until they stood in front of the building, Lorelai had wanted to see.

"Ha! I want one of those!" exclaimed Lorelai. She explained that it was originally named "Fred & Ginger", after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

"Weird", was Luke's only comment.  
They found out that there was a French restaurant on the roof and decided that it was only appropriate to their late breakfast to have a very late lunch or rather early dinner, too. So they went inside the building and up to the top.  
If they had had any doubts if that was the right place to have an enjoyable meal, they surely didn't doubt it now, when say saw the incredible few over the city.

While they were eating they had found out that both of them didn't want to see anything special anymore and so they agreed to spent the rest of the afternoon tranquilly in one of Prague's beautiful parks.  
So after they finished their meal, with a huge cup of coffee on Lorelai's side of course, they went to Havlí?kovy sady, which was supposed to be nice and calm.

When it slowly got dark they decided to got for a last drink in Prague, even though Lorelai said, "a last drink in Prague" it would never be as classic as a "last drink in Paris" would have been.  
After a short debate, it seemed like nothing on this journey could be done without a debate, they agreed to go to Café Blatouch again, where they already had been on their first evening.

In time they went back to the hotel, got their bags from the storage room and took leave of Tomas.  
That part took them longer then they expected, because he asked them again and again how they had liked Prague and if they would want to visit again. He gave them his E-Mail address in case they needed a room in Prague again and so on and on.  
Finally they managed to persuade him to call them a cab and when that came he let them go. But then Lorelai remembered that they still didn't know too much about the dealings with Czech cab drivers, so she ran in again and asked Tomas to help them again. He gladly arranged the price and sent them off with lots of waving and shouting in the middle of the otherwise nightly silent street.  
At last they reached the train station.

After running back and forth a few times, because first Lorelai, then Luke thought, they knew the right track, they finally really found it. 

Before they climbed up the stairs leading to the platform, Luke said that he wanted to get something to eat. He intended to go back to a sandwich stand he had seen before. He put down is luggage and leaned it against the wall, together with Lorelai's stuff. He instructed her to watch the bags and started his food hunt.

When he came back about five minutes later he found the luggage pile, but no sign of Lorelai. Kind of angry he started to look around and checking the number of bags at the same time. He called her name.  
With a childish expression of guilt for leaving her post Lorelai appeared from behind a corner.

"What do you think you're doing?" Luke barked at her. "What if someone stole something? Didn't I tell you to..."  
He was being interrupted by an appalled scream of Lorelai. She rushed to the bags and started sifting through them in panic.

"Oh no! no no no!", she muttered and frantically looked around.

"What?" Luke asked.

"My bag with my shoes is gone", she told him with a panicked voice.

"Oh that is just great! I told you a thousand times that you shouldn't..." he started but she interrupted him.

"Stop lecturing me! It's not like it would be helping now", she yelled at him ,while still looking around for her bag.

"Well, if you would have listened once, that would have helped", he yelled back, angry that she hadn't taken his advice and now her shoes were gone.

"I thought you were kidding!"

"Oh yeah, how funny! Lorelai pay attention to your stuff there are thieves here! Haha, how funny, I can barely contain myself of laughter. My stomach is already hurting from laughing so hard", he yelled back sarcastically and snorted in disbelieve. How could she be that stupid?

"So you weren't kidding!" Lorelai ended the fight they were having about the stolen bag.  
"Well the bag is gone..." she tried to come to terms with the hard truth. "Oh my shoes..." wringing her hands she bent her knees. "They were so pretty. The little black ones with the straps and the little glass-pearls and that little thingy engraved on the bottom..."

"Come on, There's our train, I think it's leaving!", Luke grabbed Lorelai's arm, they snatched the bags and started running up the stairs to the track.  
They reached the train just in time, Lorelai got in, Luke threw both backpacks in and also jumped up the doorway. The doors closed behind them and off they went.

_TBC._

written by: harvardaspirant


	4. Vienna one

**Chapter 3 (Vienna): Hundertwasser and a rat**

Luke and Lorelai arrived in Vienna at six o'clock in the morning. Both were tired and exhausted. They were still struggling with the jetlag and the too long of stays in trains during the few last days. Lorelai couldn't sleep at all within the three hour drive from Prague because she was thinking of the loss of her precious shoes. She kept Luke awake and he was very tired of hearing about it. He knew if he told her that he warned her all day long that something like this could happen, she would tell him that he should've watched closer. But when they finally left the train Lorelai was really sleepy, so he left her sitting on the bags and went to the tourist information to ask for addresses of B&Bs and hostels. After having bad luck with Lorelai's shoes, they had good luck now. Another backpacking couple just arrived some minutes earlier and cancelled the room they had booked. Luke felt relieved that they wouldn't have to call every hostel, but could just take this room, if it was still available.

"Could you just call a place called Bag and Map again and ask if we can stay? It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just a place to get some rest."

"Of course, Sir. Give me just a minute."

Luke turned around and looked at Lorelai. She was very sleepy and her eyes closed from time to time. But then she shrugged looking around herself with suspicious eyes which made Luke smile. At first she wasn't listening to him and now she was extremely wary. He turned around to the information as the man addressed him:

"Sir? I managed to get you into this room. It is called Bag and Map Apartment Guesthouse and it's an apartment booked for three nights with two single beds. If you don't mind to sleep separated from your wife?"

"Oh no. That's perfectly fine. Would you please give me the directions?" He pointed to Lorelai and added, "I fear she will fall asleep before we can get there."

"May I ask one question? Why does she look so confused?" Luke thought that she maybe looked confused because her head was a mess but instead of saying that he answered,

"We just arrived from Prague and right before we took the train her bag with her shoes was stolen. A great disaster for the woman. Now she is very suspicious."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Sir. If I can give you some advice? Don't feel too safe here in Vienna either. Especially in the subways, where you are no safer from pocket picking than you were in Prague."

"Really? All right then, thanks for the warning."

"You are welcome," he said and showed Luke a map, unfolded it and continued, "So, here is a map of Vienna. I marked the house with the apartments for you. Just take subway line U3 heading for Westbahnhof and switch trains there. Then take subway line U6 heading for Floridsdorf. Leave the subway at station Burggasse and then it's just around the corner. It's not that close to downtown but it doesn't take more than 15 minutes to get there."

"It's perfect and thanks again."

"No problem. Have a nice stay in Vienna, Sir." Luke returned to Lorelai and pulled her up carefully because she had fallen asleep.

"Hey Lorelai, it's too early to fall asleep. I found an apartment for us." Hearing these words woke Lorelai up a bit.

"Really? That's great. I hope the place is not too far away and has a big bed there."

"I think chances are good. Here, take your backpack and let's go. And before I forget about it: The guy from the tourist information just told me we should be careful in Vienna, too."

"Do you mean about thieves?"

"Yes."

"Okay, this time I will take it into consideration. I will watch my stuff all the time and won't let it go. And here: you take my credit card."

"Why?"

"It's safer. And it'll be your fault if it gets stolen."

"Well, thanks for your trust. Anything else I gotta keep that is precious enough?"

"No. There's nothing more anyone could steal from me."

"No? What about your wallet with all your other credentials? Or your clothes?" Lorelai thought about it really hard and then answered.

"Luke, you will never be able to understand what my shoes mean to me."

"You mean meant to you?"

"You are enjoying this, you little sadist, aren't you? You will pay for making fun of me, believe me. The minute you expect it the least is when it will come back on you. And I know exactly when this will happen."

"Oh no, I don't like the look on your face. What is it, huh?"

"I won't tell. You will know soon enough. So, let's go see our housing. What is it?"

"It's an apartment for three days."

"Great. Enough time to finally get over this horrible jetlag and to get my revenge." Luke rolled his eyes and pulled Lorelai into the direction of the subway line sign.

They arrived at the apartment house one hour later and were welcomed by a sleepy young man who guided them to their apartment room on the second floor. Without another word he handed them their keys and left the room. One second after he had closed the door he knocked again.

"Let's talk later; the morning is just not my time", he said and Lorelai smiled. She knew exactly how he felt. Focusing on their apartment, she was impressed.

"Luke, this is pretty. It's newly redecorated. Nothing in comparison to that cruddy hole in Prague."

"Yeah, we are fortunate."

"Yes, and we have a kitchen here. That's why I have even more luck considering I brought my own cook to Europe."

"I'm not your cook." He walked over to the cupboard and unpacked some of his clothes, preparing to have a shower. Meanwhile Lorelai sat down on one of the beds and found that the pillow looked really inviting. She almost wanted to lay down when Luke said,

"Don't even think about it. We talked about this on the train. If we sleep now we will never be able to achieve the right rhythm here. So stay awake. I don't wanna wake you up."

"Come on, Luke. Just five minutes. And why don't you want to wake me up?"

"Because you are unbearable when you are tired". He said this when he was about to enter the bathroom and he had to hide behind the door because Lorelai's reaction to his statement was a flying pillow. When he had locked the door Lorelai got up and grabbed her pillow to put it back on the bed. To stay awake she started to unpack some of her clothes, too, but was finished with that a few minutes later. As she didn't know what to do next she sat down on the bed again and couldn't prevent falling asleep. When Luke returned from the bathroom and saw Lorelai sleeping he sighed, shook his head and muttered:

"Impossible".

It was just half past seven and he felt tired, too. If they slept now it wouldn't get better. But he couldn't wake her up. Although he didn't understand, he knew that the loss of her shoes made Lorelai feel bad and that she just needed to rest. He pulled her shoes off and set his alarm clock for 10 o'clock. Then he laid down on his own bed and fell asleep immediately.

When the alarm rang later Lorelai almost jumped out of the bed. She had fallen asleep although she didn't intend to do it; but did she set an alarm? She couldn't remember. But when she looked around she saw Luke reaching out for the clock to turn the alarm off. She was confused and Luke saw it:

"Well, I told you I don't like to wake you up. And as it was still very early I decided we both needed a rest."

"Thanks, I just fell asleep. But I don't feel better now that this thing scared me half to death."

"Two hours of sleep are better than none." She hardly got off her bed and went to the bathroom.

"Luke, would you be my hero and prepare some coffee for me? Otherwise I won't be able to move today."

"I'll see what I can do."

When Lorelai returned, she didn't smell coffee. Luke was sitting at the table studying a map of Vienna and looked up when he heard her:

"Before you start complaining, as you can see, this is an apartment. One has to buy stuff to have stuff."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning there is no coffee." Lorelai let herself fall on her bed theatrically which in turn made Luke roll his eyes and almost snap.

"Stop it. Don't you remember that we saw the mall opposite the station? We can have breakfast there."

"Is it far away?" Luke took a breath.

"I told you, it's just on the other side of the street were the station is. I guess a five minute walk." Lorelai raised her head with effort letting it fall down one second later:

"Too far for me. You gotta go and bring the breakfast here."

"That would take longer. Tomorrow you will get your breakfast here. We can go shopping after having breakfast." Lorelai jumped up hearing the magic word.

"Shopping?"

"Food shopping, Lorelai. Eggs, ham, juice, bread and for your addiction: coffee."

"Come on, Luke. Why don't we just buy the food and then find some new shoes for me?"

"Because I did not come here to go shoe-shopping. End of discussion. What about that breakfast now? Aren't you starving?" Luke could see the fight that was going on in Lorelai. Should she argue any further about shopping, thereby staying hungry and caffeine-less or should she go for the breakfast thereby dropping the shopping idea? Her stomach won the fight - at least this time.

"All right, let's go then. But I won't forget it, Luke, be assured." Speaking the last words while pointing at him with one of her fingers. "I never forget things like that."

"I know. But I won't stop avoiding anything that is related to shoes and shopping", he sighed and murmured.  
He followed her out of their room and less than fifteen minutes later Lorelai was able to take the first sip of her highly anticipated coffee. She sighed deeply and leaned back inhaling the smell of her coffee.

"Now I feel like a complete person again. I am ready for the city."

"I hope the city is ready for you."

"I'm ignoring that tone of yours, Lucas."

"How come you can be a different person with one sip of coffee?"

"I can't tell you, Luke. That's a secret between me and the caffeine spirit." He raised his eyebrows and decided that he wouldn't let himself be drawn into such a conversation. Therefore he changed the subject.

"I took a look at the city map of Vienna when you were having your shower. I suggest we take it easy today. Just see one famous building and visit the Prater. And we can go to bed early tonight."

"Uh, is this an offer, Mister? If so, you are irresistible", Lorelai gestured with her eyes.

"When will you ever act like a grown up person?"

"Mmh, let me think about it. I guess the same day you make Taylor your best friend. Now, tell me what that Prater thingy is!"

"It is an amusement park."

Lorelai interrupted him by clapping her hands like a child. "With roller coasters? Are there any haunted houses, too?"

"I don't know, Lorelai. Stop acting like a child. People are starting to stare."

"Aren't we Mister Sunshine this morning? What's wrong with you? Don't you like amusement parks?"

"Are you kidding me? They are way too expensive and too dangerous. And in addition - what makes it worse - there are grown up people dressed like ducks and mice and other animals." Lorelai laughed at Luke.

"That's just Disney Land, Luke."

"I don't care. I don't like them in general. But as it is your trip, too, and as you like this stuff, we will go there. I read that one has a great view over the city from the Ferris wheel."

"All right, then its settled."

"As long as it makes you happy. Tomorrow we can go sight seeing and visit the Schönbrunn Palace and the day after that we will leave for Athens."

"Everything sounds good. But what is it exactly that we'll do today?"

"First we have breakfast and we can take our time. Then we buy the food for our apartment. And after we brought it there we can go and watch the Hundertwasser House."

"What's that?"

"You don't know? I thought you prepared for the trip. Well, it's a quite uncommon house with very uncommon architecture. I bet you'll love it."

"Mmh, no hint at all what it looks like?"

"It looks like a house a certain person would perfectly fit in."

"You know, Mister Danes, that a certain person is very impatient?"

"I know. But I just don't get the chance very often to tease you. So let me just have my little moment." She smiled at him. Today Luke wasn't in the grumpy mood that she was used to. He even let her have the much needed nap and now he was even making jokes.

"All right. You have your fun but this is added to what I officially call the payback list now. First playing the hungry-card against me and now teasing me."

"I'll take the risk".

Some coffees and rolls later they went to the supermarket, bought everything Lorelai thought they needed in the next couple of days - and Luke of course knew they wouldn't - and went back to their apartment. It was early noon when they finally sallied for the Hundertwasser House which they approached half an hour later. Lorelai was fascinated by the house.

"Oh my god, Luke, have you ever seen something like that? It's great. Look at all those different colors that are not ordered in any obvious way. God, I wish my house would look like that. And look at the trees! They have their own park on their roof, in the middle of the city."

"What are you doing, Lorelai?"

She was digging in her bag searching for something special and putting her camera, her lipsticks and an old cracker into Luke's hands.

"I'm searching for my cell phone. I want to call Rory."

"To tell her what?"

"That she has to plant trees on our roof, of course. I want those, too."

She finally had found her cell phone but Luke took it away from her immediately.

"Hey, give it back to me!"

"No, I won't. Do you remember that your daughter is currently wearing a cast? If you send her on your roof I promise you that there will be more than just one broken leg."

"Rory is not as clumsy as I am. I want some trees on my house."  
"What for? Birds are gonna nestle in the trees and you will have to hear them chirping all the time."

"That's a cute idea."

"They will start chirping at 5 am."

"That's indeed the opposite of cute."

Luke smiled at her. "I thought so. Can I give you the phone back?"

"Yes, you can. Why do you always ruin my greatest ideas, Luke? I always loved little birdies and now all I'm gonna think of them forever is that they are annoying starting to chirp that early. That adds another point to my list."

"Stop with that list, Lorelai. And now, take at least some pictures of the house that fascinates you so much."

"I will. And I will do more. I will knock on one door and ask the people to see what it looks like inside."

"You can't do that."

"Why not?"

"Don't you think they could be annoyed when every tourist that stops here knocks at their door? Imagine if you lived here. How would you feel about that?"

Lorelai thought about it for some seconds and then made a disappointed face.

"You did it again, you blighted my idea. That's just not fair."

"Nobody ever said life was fair."

On their way back Lorelai realized they had passed a building designed by Hundertwasser already, and before Luke had a chance to react or protest she had pulled him out of the train.

"Look, there's another building like that. And hey, the factory really wears a hat."

"I can see it. I don't see its use, but I can see it."

"Well, that's modern art and I like it. It looks like Rory's golf hat."

"Rory has a golf hat?"

"Yeah, you must have seen it. She got it from her grandfather when he took her to the club once. And although I didn't like it Rory had fun there and wore the hat afterwards. And this hat looks pretty similar. I just want to take a picture. We will be able to take the next train as if nothing happened."

"Okay, hand me your camera. I will take the picture for Rory."

"Thanks, Luke. She will love it."

The next train arrived five minutes later and they returned to their room where Lorelai just threw her bag on the bed and murmured something like 'too much coffee' when she ran to the bathroom. When she returned Luke gave her a sandwich he had prepared for her:

"I know you will get hungry every minute. You always do when you're excited."

"Sometimes it scares me that you know me so well. You're not stalking me or anything, are you?"

"Of course I'm not stalking you. You eat at my diner every day. I know what you order when you are sad. What you eat when you are happy and want to celebrate and I know it when you had a fight with Rory."

"Now, that's even scarier. Am I that predictable?"

"With your eating habits? Yes. Now, eat your sandwich because I know you are going to be very excited about the roller coasters and everything else there. And I don't want you to eat fast food there. You'll get sick."

"Come on, Luke, don't be so negative. And your sandwich cannot prevent me from eating in the amusement park."

"Why not?"

"Because it is a rule to have at least cotton candy or ice cream in such a park."

"Whose rule is that?"

"Rory's and mine, of course. You don't get the whole experience if you don't eat candy. That's what kids do, that's the magic of amusement, Luke."

"But I'm not a kid anymore."

"What about your own kids? Are they simply not supposed to have fun because Daddy doesn't like it there?"

"I have no kids."

"Not so far. Give me an answer: Will they live in a dark cave without ever knowing about the fun things that exist in this world?"

"Of course they won't live in a cave. But what is so bad about the idea of protecting them from fast food and accidents?"

"Nothing, Luke. But believe me, kids love fast food and they love roller coasters."

"Obviously not only kids do. So let's go and let the grown up kid have some fun."

When they arrived at the Prater it was early afternoon and Lorelai was enthused about the park. She had seen amusement parks before but they were usually located outside of cities, not in the middle. She decided to ask Taylor at the next town meeting why Stars Hollow didn't have such an attraction. To her surprise Luke smiled when she told him about it.

"You don't hate the idea?"

"Why should I? Taylor will never agree to do this but it'll be fun to watch him being stressed by you."

"You are evil, Mister."

"How long have you known Taylor, now?"

"Mmh, let me think. I guess about seven years."

"Well, I've known him forever, Lorelai. The first thing I remember of him is that he wanted my father to sort his tools alphabetically."

"I bet your father threw him out of the store."

"Yes, after he tried for the third time. But it never stopped."

"I know something that would cheer you up. If you escorted me onto the Ferris wheel."

"I don't think I will like it."

"Why not, we will have a wonderful view over the city. Don't tell me it'll be too high for you. Do you have acrophobia?"

"I don't have acrophobia."

"So you just don't want to let yourself have some fun?"

"Will you stop asking if I come with you?"

"Of course not. On one of the gondolas you won't have a chance to escape me. But I already know. You just don't wanna go because you said so. Come on, I want to do it to get an overview of the attractions."

"Are you a psychologist now?"

"I don't have to be. As you can tell something about me from my eating habits, I think I know you well enough now to know when you're standing in your own way, Mister."

"If you say so."

They went on the Ferris wheel together but Lorelai didn't manage to get Luke onto one of the roller coasters or other attractions whatever she wanted.

She was disappointed a bit but she knew she would pay him back sooner or later. And when she saw a fast food joint she went straight over and fluted. "Hey, Luuuuuke. Look, what I just found. I will have ice cream now and there's nothing you can do about it. I will relish it and eat it directly in front of your face."

"No Lorelai, look at that joint. It looks all shabby and dirty."

But Lorelai didn't listen and bought herself a big ice cream with many scoops. She returned to him with a glorying look on her face just to turn suspicious instantly because Luke was laughing. Just as she wanted to ask him what was so funny he grabbed her face and turned it around, back to the joint. Lorelai wanted to protest but the words got stuck in her throat as she saw a big rat running around the corner of the joint. She turned back to Luke and whispered: "Did I just see what I think I saw? Please tell me that wasn't a rat I saw."

Luke was trying hard to keep a straight face but he failed piteously: "My father told me to never lie to a girl. So I have to tell you, your eyes told you the truth."

Disgusted Lorelai threw the ice cream into the next trash can. "Ugh, I will never be able to eat ice cream again."

"I'll talk to you in two hours about it. Your stomach is made of iron considering the amount of coffee you consumed in your life so far. A little rat won't change that."

"Stop laughing, that's not funny."

"Believe me, from my point of view it is."

"I'll add that to the list, Mister."

"And will you stop talking about that stupid list. I have done nothing."

"That's your side of the story. But I don't feel like staying here any longer. Let's go back to our apartment. You had too much fun today."

"Well, at least now I will have a pleasant memory of amusement parks."

They returned to their room and Lorelai decided Luke should cook something. She couldn't stand the idea of going to a fast food restaurant ever again. After Luke prepared some pasta and took care of the dishes after they finished eating, they both went to bed and fell asleep immediately.

The next day was all planned for the big sight seeing tour of Vienna. As usual Luke was the first to get up and when he came out of the bathroom Lorelai was still pretending to sleep. He went to the kitchen and said with a loud voice. "Get up, Lorelai. We've been sleeping more than 10 hours and I know you woke up by the alarm, too."

"I don't want to get up."

"Well, I guess I am not preparing any coffee then."

"Oh no, you wouldn't dare."

"Try me."

"All right, you win. But I hate it that you know how you get me to do things."

He looked through the open door with one cup in his hand. "You've given me an insight of your habits for many years now. Come on, get up. It's past nine already and we want to see all of the great spots of Vienna, don't we?"

Lorelai hardly got out of the bed and scuffled over to Luke who sat down at the table to study a card of the city. "Where did you get that from?"

"It was lying on the table. Just go get your shower. Meanwhile, I'll figure out the shortest route through the city."

"That does sound like a hero's word. I'll count on that."

After Lorelai returned from the bathroom she first took a deep sip of her coffee and then leaned over Luke to have a look at the map, too.

"You marked a lot of spots."

"I just marked those that are referred to as a 'must see'. If we want to get them all done, you better hurry with your breakfast. I'll prepare something for us. Something to eat and to drink. I know you get hungry all the time."

"How will you carry it?"

"I brought this additional backpack with me for instances like this."

"That's one ugly looking bag."

"That doesn't matter; it just has to be useful. Start eating."

"Do we really have to take that thing?"

"Do you really have to go shoe-shopping here?"

Lorelai turned away - defeated for now. While she was eating her breakfast she looked at the map that Luke prepared. As far as Lorelai could tell, he had really searched for the shortest distance. It felt good to have someone take care of stuff like that. Therefore she could stand walking around with a bag like that. When she finished Luke was waiting already and they left their apartment at ten o'clock. At the subway station they met many people that carried all the same labels around their necks or pockets and Lorelai pointed at them asking if Luke had any idea who they were.

"Put your hand down, Lorelai. And I have no idea. But I read somewhere that Vienna is one of the most frequented spots in the world for different congresses. I guess there's a congress here at the moment."

When they got onto the train, it was quite crowded and Lorelai was annoyed by a young girl who pushed her into the subway. She thought that the girl didn't have to push her that much as the train wasn't too crowded and was wondering why she left the train all of a sudden when the doors started to close. She overheard a conversation of two women who were participating in a congress standing next to her.

"Look for your purse, Anna."

"Why should I?"

"Haven't you seen this group of girls pushing inside the train just to leave it again? I saw something like that on TV a few days ago."

Lorelai immediately had a bad feeling and looked into her purse just to find it wallet-less and turned pale.

_**TBC**_

**Remember that there's an extra homepage for this story with pictures of the trip, a map and whatnot. Check it out!  
**  
Written by Norma


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